On Christmas Eve I experienced my first Dominican Christmas...twice.
We went to Eddy's parents' house around 7:00 for dinner. They had a very traditional Dominican Christmas meal that included the roasted pork (of course), white rice with guandules, a special type of chicken, avocados, potato salad, green salad, rotisserie chicken, and rolls. Let me explain a little about each food. You already heard about the pork. Eddy's mom called the chicken "pollo a la parla", I have no idea what that means, but it was pretty good. Guandules are a special kind of beans that they put over the rice. It is a very traditional part of the Christmas meal. They are very good. There is always avocado. Domincan potato salad is the best potato salad in the world (it may even beat good old Key Market potato salad). The green salad is basically shredded lettuce with tomatoes and cucumbers. And the store-bought rolls and rotisserie chicken were my contributions (along with brownies for dessert, which were a big hit). As promised, we ate a lot. We were both very hungry and the food was very good. Plus it made his mom very happy. After dinner we hung out for a little while and visited the girls.
The day before, Lelo had invited us over for dinner. We explained that we would love to come but we were eating dinner at Eddy's mom's house. Eddy's mom's name is Ana and she is Lelo's sister. Lelo told us not to eat very much at Ana's, but we told her we were planning on eating a lot. This somehow translated to her believing that we were eating dinner with their family and planned on eating a lot.
Around 9:15 Eddy's mom informed us that Lelo told her we were eating dinner with them. (In retrospect, it was probably good that we ate a lot at her house, because his mom was probably watching to see.) So we headed over to Lelo's. They had even more food than Eddy's mom. We were so full. Right before we started, Eddy told me not to worry about it, just take a little salad. However, in the Dominican culture, the guests serve themselves first. They all watch what and how much you take, and it is very rude to only take a little. There was no way I was getting away with only taking salad. So I took a little bit of everything. I had read somewhere that it takes your brain 20 minutes to know that the stomach is full. My strategy was to eat it all very fast so that I finished before my stomach told my brain how full it was. Just as I was almost finished I realized the flaw in my plan. My plate was almost empty and everyone else had just started eating. Dominican mom's don't like empty plates so early. I tried to hide it, but one minute later, my empty plate was spotted and I was served more pork. This time, I ate it very slowly so as not to be served more and when everyone else was finishing, snuck the rest onto Eddy's plate.
All in all, it was a lot of fun but it was also a little emotional for me. Lelo and her husband live right across the street from our apartment. Eddy's two single cousins still live there and his two married cousins live in two houses built a few yards behind Lelo's house. We spend a lot of time with their family and at Christmas dinner it was very apparent that they consider us a part of their family. After dinner Eddy's mom and dad and sister came over as well and we all sat around and talked and celebrated for a few more hours. It was my first Christmas without my family in the states but my first Christmas with my family in the Dominican Republic. I think I am starting to get used to having so many conflicting emotions at the same time.
I did take lots of pictures and I would love to share them with you but my wonderful husband, who I love, accidentally erased my memory card. Maybe next year. Merry Christmas!
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